Swedemom Center of Giving and MacHub
Passionate about making a difference in the financial stability of charitable organizations
What We’re Up To
The Swedemom Store Summer Pop Up Shop
The Swedemom summer pop-up shop is finally open. Woohoo! We would like to personally thank those of you who showed up to support us throughout our grand opening week.
We are so happy to finally be able to display all of our items and trinkets in a physical shop. Every item donated to us comes with a unique story and quality that we would love to share with everyone. Our distinctive pricing system allows customers to determine the value of each item, (some exceptions apply) enabling them to create their own meaningful connection with their purchase.
Some highlights of our grand opening week include a fun family/group oriented puzzle building event that allowed members of the community to relax while having some fun building puzzles! Additionally, we were treated to incredible in-house jazz piano performances by the talented Jonathan Swanson on Saturday. Jonathan, a local musician and valued member of the McMinnville community, graciously shared his musical talents, adding a soothing ambiance to the store.
Throughout the week we experienced nothing but love from our local community. Through donations, in store purchases, or just stopping by our shop we thank you all for such a warm welcome back to the historic place that is downtown McMinnville.
At Swedemom, our mission is to contribute to a better and more sustainable community. And what better place to achieve this than at the heart of our community, on 3rd Street. We invite you to visit us at 609 NE 3rd Street on one of these beautiful summer days. We are open Wednesday through Saturday!
-Henry Stahl
Our Impact So Far In 2023
Our mission is to take donated goods and pass them on to other nonprofit and community organizations to help them serve their clients. This includes students in school, individuals struggling with homelessness or lack of resources, elderly folks in care facilities, single parents, and more. We even pass along items to animal shelters! So far in 2023, we have been able to make 37 deliveries to our nonprofit partners by passing on your donations of desks, tables, chairs, beds, cooking items, warm clothes, school supplies, blankets, books, towels, appliances, TVs, lamps, and so much more. Thank you for your support in our mission of community support and sustainability! Know that your donations truly are making a difference in our community and in the lives of struggling individuals. We couldn't do it without you!
Partner Spotlight
This year marks the 7th year Swedemom Center of Giving has participated in the McMinnville Works Summer Internship Program.
"The McMinnville WORKS Internship Program connects local businesses and organizations to talented young collegiate professionals through project-based internship opportunities. Internships are 9+ weeks, full-time, paid, and held during the summer."
We had the opportunity to interview Heather Hadley Blank, Deputy Director at MEDP, to learn more about her, her time with the organization, and her hopes for the McMinnville community. Thank you, Heather!
Can you share with us what your favorite part of McMinnville is?
McMinnville’s small town charm and sense of community.
Could you please share the story of how you ended up working at MEDP?
What inspired you to pursue a career with MEDP?
After working for 15 years in both the non-profit association and for-profit manufacturing worlds I took a hiatus to raise my two sons, and as they were growing up, I was looking for something to put my marketing program and event skills back to use at. I applied for a position with McMinnville Downtown Association but only wanted part-time with two young sons at home still. As they were looking for full-time support they referred me to Jody Christensen at MEDP. She was looking for a part-time special projects manager and the rest is history! I started in the Fall of 2015 with MEDP and produced their 10th Anniversary - McMinnville MADE Event in 2016, supported with the McMinnville WORKS Summer Internship, Website development, Branding and Marketing Communications, etc. Eventually I moved into a Program Manager role, then Interim Director in 2022, and have now become the Deputy Director supporting our Executive Director, Patty Herzog to deliver on MEDP’s goals and objectives. As you know in the non-profit world of small teams we all wear many hats!
Reflecting on your time at MEDP, what specific aspects of the organization have you loved the most while working there?
Having lived in McMinnville since 2000, and after starting at MEDP, I really appreciated getting to meet and tour our diverse local manufacturing businesses and meet the people that make it all possible. Everyone identifies with McMinnville for its wine industry, but after working at MEDP I learned about the incredible breadth of industry we have here from recycled steel, gluten free snack bars, coil hose tubing, polymers for aerospace, UAVs, 3D printing, helicopter size drones, organic dairy products, circuit boards, cathodes and electron components, dried urine hormone testing, MIM dental components, knives made with dinosaur bone, carbon sequestering concrete, closed loop agriculture circular food systems with black soldier fly larvae, wax injection mold creation, ag tech, metals machining, tooling, fabrication and processing and so much more! This “McMinnville MADE” diversity supports our thriving economy and our work to support them is just one aspect that I appreciate about working at MEDP.
Can you tell me about some of the other projects or initiatives that the MEDP is actively involved in, besides providing internships? How do these additional activities contribute to the overall goals and mission of the program?
MEDP’s mission is to support businesses to thrive and in turn to create great living wage jobs. We do this through our strategic initiatives:
Business Retention & Expansion – through resource and program connection, whether working locally, regionally, at the state or federal level to find support for our traded sector businesses.
Business Attraction – We have limited industrial land availability and we want to maximize this opportunity by encouraging business and industry that support other McMinnville industry though supply chain needs or complement our economic make-up. Our key factor for recruitment is do they support great living wage jobs that supports workforce development through career pathways and training as well as providing a living wage. We want our businesses to be part of the community and get involved as well.
Workforce Development -- As you mentioned the prevalent theme is workforce. We want to find resources and funding programs for our business community to support them in training and developing their teams and in turn creating great company culture and great living wage jobs. There is a plethora of programs out there and a couple localized ones are MEDP’s Career Bound youth (14-24) work experience program and McMinnville WORKS young collegiate professionals internship program. We are currently working with Chemeketa Community College, McMinnville School District, Unidos and Willamette Workforce Partnership on a regional Jobs Board platform (Yamhill Valley Careers or YVCareers) that will support our youth in finding resources for career exploration, job shadow, paid work experiences and internships. It will also offer area businesses the opportunity to post jobs in general at no cost to them. We hope to launch this in the fall so be on the lookout!
Innovation and Entrepreneurship – As mentioned earlier it’s amazing the entrepreneurs mindset and drive and we want to encourage that growth here in McMinnville. Entrepreneurs are one of the cornerstones of a thriving economy. We support the Launch Mid Valley regional effort for entrepreneurs and hope through grant funding to build out programming for more localized Launch McMinnville area entrepreneurs in the coming season. Other endeavors in this arena also entail working with the City and property owners on the 140 acres off of Highway 18 with a future focus on an Innovation Campus to support new and locally expanding companies to grow, and in turn provide great living wage jobs to members of our community. This is in it’s inception phase as the City does a feasibility study for infrastructure to support development out there. Just like McMinnville Industrial Promotions (MIP) brought 9 new businesses and industries to McMinnville in 1969 and supported development of McMinnville’s Industrial District, MEDP supports and plans for our community’s future.
As someone who is involved in the workforce development of McMinnville, can you share your vision for the future of workforce development in the area?
Good question, as our community grows so does the need for workforce housing and with limited land availability that brings challenges that the City is working on. We also see how technology is changing the make up of the workforce with employees getting trained up to operate and work with cobots or how everyone had to learn new skills to function during the pandemic with online tools and platforms and how that impacts us today with more hybrid or remote work options in some industries. People are realizing the value of a good company culture beyond their paycheck and want to be engaged, learn and grow and not necessarily be just a cog in the wheel. We hope to encourage our new and existing companies to support and grow a knowledge based workforce while also encouraging growth in the skilled trades. We see a great number of retirements and our emerging and existing workforce need to see the value and financial potential for working in the trades by becoming a fabricator, plumber or a lineman for instance. MEDP holds a monthly Workforce Partnership Meeting that is growing in size and regional scope with nearly 30 entities participating. We share organizational knowledge and programs and discuss grants and funding and work on how we all can collaborate to support new endeavors like paid work based learning in the school district (like McMinnville Water & Light held as a pilot this spring with 7 MHS students), or pursuing programs and funding for Career Bound offering employers a wage subsidy or like the Yamhill Valley Careers Jobs Board with multi-partner involvement to create for community use.
Get To Know Our Team
Meet our summer intern, Henry Stahl!
Henry is an upcoming senior at Oregon State University majoring in marketing. He was born and raised in McMinnville and has returned for the summer to assist us in our marketing efforts. July 5-8 was the grand opening of The Swedemom Store where Henry was a great asset in helping us to plan and market the event. His responsibilities include working in the store on 3rd street, customer service, working in our production wheel imaging items to be sold online, and is currently working on a rebranding project and designing new logos. We're always impressed with the interns we get through our partnership with MEDP. Thank you for your hard work this summer Henry!
What made you decide to major in Marketing?
I think the catalyst for me going into business and marketing in general was my high school marketing teacher, Ms. Breyer. The projects and lessons we had in her classes allowed me to see how broad and fun marketing can be.
What skills are you hoping to learn or perfect?
I am hoping to learn how to market a small business from a hands-on perspective. In school we are always being taught how to market for bigger companies who have money to spend on marketing, but never how to market on a budget. I feel like this internship is giving me the experience I need to be able to market on all levels.
What has been your favorite part of the internship?
My favorite part of this internship is seeing all the cool items we get in. I get to learn about various cultures, artists, musicians, and more just by researching an item I find intriguing. I am pretty big into music too so when I see a vinyl/cd that looks fun I'll throw it on as background music in the store or just as I'm doing my work.
What do you like to do for fun in your spare time?
In my spare time I like to do anything outside like run, hike, and camp! My friends and I are actually planning to do a 4 day backpacking trip pretty soon. I also enjoy finding new music and listening to live music. Some artists I've been listening to recently include Richie Havens, Marcos Valle, Thundercat, and Todd Rundgren.
Do you have any hopes and dreams for your future with jobs or anything else?
My two dreams in life, as of right now, are running a marathon and climbing Machu Picchu!
What in your opinion would you say is the thing that is most needed and missing from the world right now?
I think what the world needs the most right now is to come together and tackle the problem of fossil fuel consumption and global warming. To create a sustainable future on Earth we need to start taking action in the present day.
We are always in need of financial support. If you feel called, click the button below to donate to our cause of bringing light to the McMinnville and surrounding communities.
Thank you for your support!
A Division of Swedemom Center of Giving (501c3)
Summer Sales With MacHub!
Find everything you need to brighten your home, wardrobe, yard, and so much more! You can find fantastic deals every day, shop for a local cause, and help the planet with MacHub! Through our partnership with Swedemom, we have an online shopping platform that makes it easy and safe to browse our stock of furniture, collectibles, décor, and more.
Mark your calendars in September for MacHub's Online Auction! With a wide variety of items and prices, there is surely something for everyone!
Registration is FREE and there is currently NO BUYER PREMIUM.
MacHub's Next Pre-loved and Useable Items Online Auction:
MacHub's Labor Day Auction
Bidding begins at 8:00 AM on September 1st and begins closing on September 6th at 5:00 PM.
To view our catalog of items from past auctions, click the button below to go to the HiBid auction site.
Looking for an opportunity to volunteer or share your skills?
Wednesdays are volunteer days at MacHub! We invite you to join our volunteer base to help serve our community and have fun while doing it! We are always looking for people to help, especially those who have knowledge with specific products. If you'd like to participate or learn more about our volunteer opportunities, please visit our website below or email us at volunteers@machub.org for more information!
Every day is Earth Day at MacHub!
We strive to give unused items new homes to keep them out of the landfill. Please consider participating in our next auction from September 1 - 6 and help support us in our efforts! Thank you!
Help ensure the future of our organization!
If you appreciate what we are doing, we welcome your financial support. Donate today through Swedemom Center of Giving or email for more information at donations@machub.org.
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